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Now in its third year, the House of Homosexual Culture continues to explore the shared cultural heritage of lesbian and gay people through a programme of events, activities and salons. One such event is the induction of queer luminaries into the HoHC Hall of Fame, and so a few weeks ago we found ourselves in the prestigious Purcell Room on the South Bank for an audience with Julian Clary, the most recent addition to their hallowed institution.

Grilled by a very Eamon Andrews looking Paul Burston, a usually shy Mr Clary walked us through his early life of sadistic teachers at catholic school before forming a band and joining a theatre group at Goldsmiths College. Sadly his lack of versatility (playing a lumberjack didn't come easily) proved his downfall but did mean that a solo career as Gillian Pie Face was born. Short-lived Gillian soon gave way to 'The Joan Collins Fan Club' which took Julian, along with his beloved Fanny the Wonderdog, the length and breadth of the cabaret circuit including a stint on the Friday Night Live TV show - coincidentally the same show as Jo Brand. A plethora of camp comedy gameshows followed such as 'Trick or Treat' and 'Stick Moments' which led him to talk about 'that' fisting joke, apparently a result of too many valiums and dry white wine and teh resulting ostracisation to Oz. More recently Julian has been concentrating on writing. Having published an autobiography (A Young Man's Passage) and his debut novel (Murder Most Fab), he is now mid-way through his 2nd novel due to hit the shelves in May 2009.